Archives - Meetings and excursions 2021
Return to Inala Saturday 27th November 2021
Results from the March excursion to Inala were added into iNaturalist. If anyone has a chance to confirm some species IDs (mostly fungi, insects and spiders) to make them research quality, it would be greatly appreciated. Please use this link https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?project_id=99857&quality_grade=needs_id&verifiable=any.
Following our successful excursion to Inala in March, we have been invited to undertake another survey of the property. The wet spring can yield new and different species.
The trip is subject to whatever COVID conditions that may be imposed at the time.
Inala is located at 320 Cloudy Bay Road, Bruny Island, in the southern end of the island not far before Cloudy Bay. Here is a link to information about and directions to the Inala Reserve https://www.inalanaturetours.com.au/bruny-island/inala-reserve .
There is an article on the ABC website about Inala which is of interest https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-06/tasmanian-jurassic-garden-wins-global-genome-grant/13203436
Thursday 4th. November - General Meeting
General meeting. Guest Speaker: James Pay will present “Investigating the conservation requirements of the endangered Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle”.
Venue: University’s Sandy Bay campus Law Building Seminar Room (Room 132), located off Grosvenor Crescent near the University sports grounds. The entrance is located off the laneway on the northern side of the building.
Saturday 6th. November - Excursion to Tooms Lake
Tooms Lake is a Conservation Area and trout fishing destination located east of Oatlands. It is a 2 hour and 10 minutes’ drive from Hobart. We will meet at Lake Tooms at 10:30 at the car park. Being a long drive, car pooling can be organised at the TFNC General Meeting on the preceding Thursday.
Saturday 30th. October - Return to Coal River Tier
Following the successful excursion in July, Zoodoo has invited us back to extend knowledge of their private reserve. This will be an unofficial TFNC event. Zoodoo will invite some friends along, so feel welcome to invite some of your friends as well. We will meet at 10 AM at Zoodoo, 620 Middle Tea Tree Road, Tea Tree https://www.zoodoo.com.au/ . Following the event, participants can enter the zoo free of charge. There is a new aviary of swift parrots that are currently breeding. Findings from July can be found on iNaturalist https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/tas-field-nats-2021-jul-coal-river-tier .
Saturday 9th Oct. - Excursion to Crescent Bay and Brown Mt.
We will meet in the Remarkable Cave car park at 10:00 AM. Remarkable Cave is located 5 minutes’ drive south of Port Arthur at the end of Safety Cove Road. It is 1 hour and 45 minutes’ drive from Hobart. The Crescent Bay Track is about an hour’s walking on a high quality track and Mt Brown is an optional side trip.
Thursday 7th. October - General meeting
Guest Speaker: Dr Simon Grove, "Invertebrate zoology at the Tasmanian Museum: our collections, and what we do with them”.
Dr. Grove is Senior Curator, Invertebrate Zoology, at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.
Please note the change of guest speaker.
Venue: University’s Sandy Bay campus Law Building Seminar Room (Room 132), located off Grosvenor Crescent near the University sports grounds. The entrance is located off the laneway on the northern side of the building.
Thursday 2nd. September - General meeting
Guest Speaker: Mike Driessen will present a talk about Tasmanian Wombats.
Meeting time 7.15 for 7.30pm.
Important: Please note that the venue for this meeting will be in the Law Building at the University of Tasmania, Sandy Bay Campus. This is not the same building at UTAS where meetings were held prior to March 2020.
Sunday 5th. September - Excursion to Wielangta
Excursion to Ponybottom Creek and Chestermans Sugarloaf via a private property at Wielangta.We will meet at Ponybottom Creek on the Wielangta Road at 10:00 AM and hope to finish about 2:00 PM. The driving time from Hobart via Copping is about 80 minutes.
Bring your lunch, snack and drink. Dress for the weather, including being off tracks. We expect to be able to boil a lunchtime billy, but you will need your own mug and tea bag, and a thermos if the weather prevents getting a fire going.
The area is mostly dry sclerophyll on sandstone or dolerite, and there is an interesting flooded swale with frogs.
Thursday 5th August - General meeting
Guest Speaker: Stephen Hamilton from ZooDoo will present on Community Consultation and Cole River Tier. This is the area visited on the July excursion.
Venue: Mathers House, Bathurst St. Hobart
Saturday 7th August - Excursion
Excursion to the Pooseum and Brinktop Bushland Reserve, Richmond.Meet at Pooseum at 9.30am (entry is discounted to $12 a head). Proceed to Brinktop Bushland Reserve for 11.15 am start. Cross over Richmond Bridge and the 1.7 ha. reserve is on on Road C351.
Please check back here closer to the date for further details.
Thursday 1st. July - General meeting
Guest Speaker: Dr Christine Coughanowr will present "Salmon, science and Storm Bay".
This talk will address the planned expansion of salmon farming in Storm Bay from the perspective of an independent scientist and kayaker. What is planned, what are the risks, and how are they being managed?
Dr Coughanowr is an environmental scientist with over 35 years experience in water quality management (marine and freshwater). She was the founder and director of the prizewinning Derwent Estuary Program for 20 years until 2018. She is a Churchill Fellow, keen bushwalker, cyclist and kayaker.
The meeting will be held at 7.30 at Mathers House, central Hobart. Members only.
Sunday 4th of July - Excursion to Cole River Tier
The start time has changed to 9:30 AM.
We will meet at Zoodoo property near Richmond, about 40 minutes’ drive from Hobart. It is located at 620 Tea Tree Road, about 6 km from Richmond.
Steve Hamilton, Zoodoo’s General Manager of Guest Experiences, will be guiding us to the area of Coal River Tier to be surveyed. He will be taking us trough the zoo property and there are several gates that will need to be locked behind us. This means we will have to walk there as a group, a distance of about 1 km. If anyone finds that difficult, transport by a vehicle or two may be allowed. Please be there on time or otherwise you might not be able to join us. Similarly, when we finish, we will need to again go through the locked gates as a group.
More information about Zoodoo is available from https://www.zoodoo.com.au/ . This excursion will be part of a larger project, “The Coal River Tier Tasmania- Natural Heritage Inventory”. Steve Hamilton, Zoodoo’s General Manager of Guest Experiences, has provided this background information.
Saturday 5th June - Alternative Excursion-Cape Deslacs
Meet at 10:00 AM at Cape Deslacs, near Clifton. It’s varied, featuring coastal heaths, woodland, coastal cliffs and a short beach walk. The circuit is between 2 and 3 km long. It is low altitude so the forecast wind should not be a problem and showers are not forecast until we have finished.
Directions: Take the South Arm Road and then Clifton Beach Road to Clifton Beach. Turn left into Bicheno St which is the first road as you enter the town. You travel around Pipeclay Lagoon. About one and a half kilometres along the road turn right, into the Cape Deslacs Track, and a sign indicating the Cape Deslacs Reserve. About half a kilometre along the Cape Deslacs Track is a car park where we will meet.
Thursday 3rd June: General Meeting
Guest Speaker Keith Martin-Smith will present “Island Life – Hunting for Invertebrates on Tasman Island”.
Cancelled Saturday 5th of June - Excursion to Betsey Island
Read here to confirm the arrangements for the trip. All places are now taken.
The TFNC boat trip to Betsey Island will now be with Tasmanian Wild Seafood Adventures. We will be travelling on a catamaran which will be faster than the original boat. Departure is at 9am sharp, but please be assembled at Elizabeth ST Pier by 8.45am.
Two documents relating to Betsey Island for your information.
Betsy Island, by Kelsey Aves: From Tasmanian Naturalist 1951
Betsy's Island, extract from Rambles on Betsy's Island by James Erskine Calder, originally published 1876 (but relating to visit 1848)
Thursday 6th May: General Meeting
For members only. 7.15 for 7.30pm, Mather House
Guest Speaker: Clare Hawkins will present:
'Where? Where? Wedgie! 2018-2020: getting to know our raptors.'
The talk will present a progress report on NatureTrackers’ bird of prey monitoring program, and provide some pointers and discussion on how to improve raptor identification skills.
Sunday 9th May: Excursion to Oatlands area
Following Clare’s talk we will be concentrating on bird spotting, starting in Oatlands at the northern end of Lake Dulverton. We will meet at 10.30 am where the Lake Dulverton walking track starts, not far from the Callington Mill. Final details for the excursion will be given at the General Meeting.
Thursday 8th April: General meeting
For members only. (Note change of day to second Thursday to avoid Easter).
Guest Speaker: Els Wakefield. Els will present:
'Two Voyages to the Southern-most Breeding Sites of the Shy Albatross and a Special Delivery.'
Sunday 11th April: Excursion to Dooley's Hill Lookout
This excursion was cancelled due to inclement weather
For members only. Starting at 10:00 AM. We will be going via the Zig Zag Track and the Goat Hills to Dooley’s Lookout. Despite the name, this isn’t the Zig Zag Track on Mt Wellington. This one is located off Collinsvale road.
Instructions to the starting point:
1. From the Brooker Highway in Berridale, follow the signage to Collinsvale. This will take you along Berridale Rd.
2. About 2 km along Berridale Road there is a Y-intersection. Take the left hand of the two roads which is Collinsvale Road.
3. Follow Collinsvale Road for about 3 Km
4. On a sharp bend facing into the hill there are a limited number of parking places at the start of The Zig Zag Track which is a gated service road for power lines.
5. If the parking is fully taken, travel further up the road for another 200m. There, on the crest of a ridge, there is more roadside parking available on both sides of the road.
6. If using the upper car parking area please be careful walking back down to the Zig Zag Track.
https://www.greaterhobarttrails.com.au/track/zig-zag-track/
Excursion - Saturday 13th March
Excursion to Inala on Bruny Island. For members only.
Address: 320 Cloudy Bay Road, Bruny Island. Commencing at 9.30am
Numbers are limited to 30 members only. BOOK NOW!* There will also be a Waiting List available in case of overbookings/any cancellations. (The trybooking link has been emailed to all members)
We will be surveying plants, fungi, snails, other invertebrates, etc, but not birds for Inala. Copies of the preliminary survey of Inala species conducted in October 2020 will be made available by email to participants prior to the excursion and there will be some hardcopies available at the Excursion itself.
If doing the excursion as a day trip please aim to catch the 7.30am ferry (and not the busy 8.30am ferry) from Kettering. It will take about an hour to get to Inala after disembarking the ferry.
Interested members will be able to record their sightings in a special project created by Inala in iNaturalist.
Annual General Meeting - Thursday 4th March
Thursday 4th March, Meeting 7.15 for 7.30. For members only.
Speakers: Three 10 minutes (approx) talks from:
Margaret Williams: 'Morocco, some geology - a taste"
Mick Brown: 'Birds of Lord Howe Island'
Shortened President's Address: 'The ones that got away'
Followed by Annual General Meeting
Thursday 4th. February - General Meeting. For members only.
 swift parrot |
Dr. Andrew Hingston (Inala Nature tours and Hon. Research Assoc. UTAS) will present 'Swift Parrots and invasive species.' Venue: Mathers House, city centre, accessed from Bathurst St Time : 7.15 for 7.30 Members only in this Covid era. Pre bookings no longer required but members will be required to sanitise and provide names and contact numbers on arrival. |
Saturday 6th February - Excursion to Echo Sugar Loaf, Randalls Bay
For members only. It takes about one hour to drive from Hobart central to Randalls Bay.
Meet at the Beachside carpark at Randalls Bay at 10am, ready to begin walking. The walk begins by walking aong the beach then climbing the hill. It is a circuitwalk probably of about 6 km. Please have clean boots, waterproof clothing, sanitiser and lunch and drinks. Map and information:
https://www.tasmaniantimes.com/2020/11/echo-sugarloaf-walking-track-opening/
https://www.coronavirus.tas.gov.au/keeping-yourself-safe/covid-safe-behaviours